


Over the Bar

by galaxiebot



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Smut, open mic night au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-08-09 10:56:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7799053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxiebot/pseuds/galaxiebot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith notices Lance while he's singing one of his favorite songs on stage at the bar he works in. This came from a request I got on Tumblr and I wound up turning it into a little trilogy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Keith stood at the bar, a long row of people now turned away from him as they waited for the person on the small wooden stage to finish. As soon as she was done, Keith was flooded with orders for booze and beer, but mostly beer. It quieted the moment someone new started to climb up onto the stage, his tan skin glistening in the lights because he was already sweating and looked more than a little nervous. Keith didn’t take much more notice of him, crossing his arms and leaning on the shelves of booze behind the bar.

The guy introduced himself, Lance, and it seemed to Keith like that was just right. Another bartender was guessing that he’d play Wonderwall while Lance was making a joke about the lights being hot. Unfortunately the joke was a pretty bad pun, and no one laughed. Lance looked more nervous than ever now, but luckily he was good looking enough to get some girl to hoot at him and it seemed to help as he laughed it off confidently. 

“Anyway,” Lance said, “I’m going to start with an All Time Low cover called Missing You.”  
Keith perked up now, interested to hear something other than indie and butchered classic rock, plus, he just loved that song. Lance started playing, and a bartender nudged Keith with her elbow asking, “your type?”

Shrugging it off, Keith focused on Lance who was taking a deep breath to sing. Eyes wide, Keith felt Lance glance up at him as the first note came from his mouth. Their eyes locked for a moment, and then Lance had to look back at his guitar again, but Keith was racking his brain for reasons Lance would have done what he just did, was he even looking at him? Or was he being self-centered, that was possible. 

By the time Lance was at the chorus, Keith was being taken apart by his voice, and he knew there was no way, but Keith wanted to think he was doing it on purpose. Even when he finished the cover, Keith was wrapped up in Lance’s singing and his original songs were good, really good. He held onto the words hard, Lance occasionally making eye contact with him, the only thing that brought him out of it was another bartender talking about getting into Lance’s pants. Keith turned and just said, “dibs,” which to the bartenders was an unbreakable pact. 

“Whoa, Keith, uncool! You hate that type!” She whined the rest of Lance’s set, which was only about half a song, but she didn’t do a thing when Lance made his way towards the bar. Lance kind of made a b-line for Keith anyway, so it was clear there was nothing she could do. When Lance was perched on a stool and demanding a shot of tequila, Keith happily obliged with a quick greeting. 

Lance was still jittery and full of music, his eyes a little wild as he took the shot and sputtered a few choice words in Spanish that Keith didn’t know, but he’d had a shot of tequila before, so he understood. Keith couldn’t help the way he chuckled at Lance’s sheepish request for a beer as the two of them both ignored several people trying to flirt with them or get their attention. 

“Ah, thank you.” Lance spoke quickly whenever he spoke, and Keith kind of liked it, he was starting to like his slightly cocky demeanor. He set a Corona on the bar for him and everyone turned back to watch the next person on stage. Everyone except Lance who was leaning his head in his hand, “like the set? You were the only one I could see clearly with those lights.” 

Keith was coy and shrugged which Lance seemed to take as a type of challenge, scooting up on the bar a bit more. “I like All Time Low.” Lance sized him up briefly and Keith just let him, willing to lay himself out for this because he really wanted this guy’s attention even if he didn’t want to admit it. 

“I’m not surprised, you look like a former scene kid.” Lance sipped his beer from the bottle and started to poke the lime down so it wouldn’t be in the neck. Keith served someone else, because his co-workers were starting to look like they’d kill him if he didn’t, but he turned right back to Lance. To his surprise, Lance waited patiently, a cat-like smirk on his nice lips.

“I might have been,” he said. It wasn’t really true, but he did wear a lot of black when he was a teen, and maybe eyeliner occasionally. Teenagers were always weird. “At least I probably didn’t regularly have my hair cut too short by my mother,” Keith said, setting down two shots for someone he already had a tab open for. Lacne twitched, and Keith was proud of himself for managing to mark him so easily. He figured it must have been a pretty accurate guess then. 

Someone was shouting at him, so he was drawn away again, but not after shooting Lance a defiant little smile as he strode off. When he came back this time, Lance was on longer perched on the bar stool and his guitar was gone. Keith was kind of kicking himself, he might have pushed it, but then he noticed him all the way at the end of the bar as if he’d gotten himself shuffled there. Some dude was trying to talk to him, and Lance didn’t quite look interested. Keith grabbed a napkin and wrote the time he was getting off on it quickly, sliding it under the next beer he gave Lance. Lance’s head shot up after reading it, a smile that was a little too triumphant for Keith’s taste, but something about it was endearing on him.


	2. Chapter 2

When Keith finally wandered out of the bar, he found Lance flirting with some young, rather attractive androgynous person. Keith nearly turned around and went back into the bar, but Lance caught him and then quickly shooed the person he was talking to away in favor of talking to Keith. Lance seemed to pick up that Keith was a little grumpy though, a wide smile on his face as he approached him. “There you are. I thought I was going to wait here forever.” 

“You might’ve if I hadn’t decided to take pity on you.” Keith walked past him because some weird form of pride and self-preservation wanted him to keep Lance at an arm’s length away. Lance didn’t seem offended, following Keith as he gripped at the strap of his guitar case. 

“Yeah like you weren’t heading straight for me.” Lance managed to get in stride with Keith and put on this undeniably cocky smirk that made Keith really want to smack him. The other bartender was right, he hated Lance’s type. But Lance was speaking in Spanish again, and what of it Keith could catch was flirty and sounded nice, “I want to go somewhere we can actually talk, let’s try to go somewhere that’s not a bar.”

Keith agreed and though it was late he knew a diner, so far Lance was interesting enough to be worth his time, and he’d probably be fun in bed, but he wasn’t confident his initial attraction to him wasn’t exaggerated because he was playing music that Keith liked. He was starting to wonder if he would have even paid Lance any mind if he hadn’t been playing that song. Lance held the door for Keith and followed him to the back table the bartenders always sat at after their shifts were over. 

He thought Lance would be the type to be content just flirting at him all night until they either parted ways or wound up in bed together, but to Keith’s surprise, Lance leaned his head in his hand and asked, “so you like All Time Low right? Are they your favorite?” 

“No, yes, kind of? I’ve listened to them since I was a kid.” Keith was so taken aback he nearly bit his tongue, but he felt like his answer was good enough and it got Lance to chuckle. His eyes turned up and he had that cat-like look to him again. Keith was in trouble. 

Lance was all smiles now, talking about his favorite music and casually keeping the conversation with Keith, and pulling information out of him like it was nothing. Keith was red and nervous and very aware of both. His usual apathy prevented him from having conversations like this, normally he swung between phases of celibacy and regular hook-ups. This, though, this felt like new to him, talking to Lance, and following Lance out of the diner, and letting Lance take him across the park behind the bar to the edge of the desert where they could see the stars better. 

Everything was beyond gooey for a while, but Keith didn’t really mind because Lance was the first person to ever try to be gooey with Keith, so he sat on the rock next to Lance and let himself be more of an open book than he had with anyone in a long time. Staring at the stars together while they talked about space like they would actually make it there one day.


	3. Chapter 3

Keith let Lance kiss him on the rock on the edge of the town, looking out on the dessert and then everything was intense. Lance was at the bar when he could be, between his job and helping his parents with his siblings it wasn’t often, but he made every single open mic night, playing songs that Keith knew were meant for him and then flirting with Keith over the bar with that cat-like smirk on his face the entire time. 

Getting used to someone wanting to know more than his name was hard for Keith. He felt like he was mean to Lance, but Lance would just laugh and agree and show up at the bar again the next night. Keith would follow him to the diner after his shift, and they’d find themselves somewhere quiet and alone where Lance would say sweet things that Keith could never anticipate or prepare for. Lance seemed to just like to make him blush. 

But his apartment seemed less empty with Lance around, and it wasn’t long before Lance was spending the night there regularly. It was always innocent at first, lying together and talking until they fell asleep in Keith’s bed using the excuse that it was the only room with air conditioning, or pressing close together on the couch when it started to get cooler out saying it was for warmth. Their little lies grew thinner and thinner until Lance was pressed to Keith’s side, purring things he’d only ever say to Keith in Spanish. 

The first time was more a release than anything else, Keith’s hand balled up in Lance’s hair as he pressed him into the bed, Lance’s words lost in a jumble of Spanish and English because neither of them could really speak English like that, but they tried to use their common language as much as they could. But then after, Lance crawled into Keith’s lap, his back arched hard, trying to make Keith moan as loud as he could while watching his face closely. 

And Lance fell into him, pressing their noses together and looking Keith in the eye before he slowed down. Keith let him, his hands on Lance’s thighs to help him keep moving as they kissed and confessed everything to each other. Keith felt like Lance might tear out his soul in an effort to be closer, Keith didn’t mind at all. Lance could have it if he wanted it.   
“I love you,” Lance mumbled, his head on Keith’s bicep with his eyes bright and focused on Keith’s. “I’m so glad I managed to get your attention.” 

Keith paused and thought a moment, “get my attention?” He was immensely puzzled by that, Lance had had his attention for so long then, it seemed a strange thing to say, but Lance was chuckling and turning onto his back. 

“You really didn’t realize.” Lance’s smiled was kind of big, but he was blushing in that bashful way Keith had only seen him do a few times. “Did you know I played at the open mic night three times before you even looked at me while I was playing?” 

Blinking, Keith moved to support himself on one elbow, “wait really?” Lance nodded and Keith furrowed his eyebrows, “so that night, you actually were looking at me, not just at the crowd?” 

Lance nodded again, “I was only playing All Time Low because it was my last resort. It was the only band shirt I’d ever seen you wearing, and anything else I played didn’t seem to get your interest.” 

Keith nodded slowly and fell back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling for a long minute. He was trying to remember Lance on stage before, but he couldn’t picture him at all, so he gave up quickly. “So then, you totally were one of the people that played Wonderwall weren’t you?” 

Lance shot him a look, “what’s wrong with Wonderwall?” Keith laughed and pressed a hand over his face, Lance smiling, “no seriously! What’s wrong with Wonderwall?”


End file.
